Greeks rewrite plan for bailout

Greece was frantically rewriting its their proposals for a new bail-out last night, in a desperate effort to pull the country back from the brink of exiting the euro.

EU leaders softened their tone against the country at a special meeting in Brussels indicating they were open to a new deal, despite the fact that there was no document to discuss.

But at the press conference afterwards EU council president Donald Tusk warned that without a creditable proposal from the Greeks, they could not exclude what he referred to as a “black” scenario, and added, “the final deadline ends this week”.

And for this reason they were calling all 28 leaders to a summit in Brussels on Sunday when they will discuss a request from Greece for a third bailout, including with strict conditions.

“I have no doubt that this is the most critical moment in our history — Europe and the Eurozone. No doubt that having all leaders around the table is the right thing to do,” Mr Tusk said, adding they had just five days to find the ultimate agreement.

Led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, however, last night’s meeting appeared to warm to the idea that provided they produce their new plans to effectively finish their last programme, and proposals for a third, they could get money to tide them over the next few months.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny had softened his tone also and said, “We need a deal here, the time is now to bring some stability and hope to the people in Greece because they are suffering”.

In the meantime the country, whose banks are expected to run out of money this week, needs money to tide them over.The EU has said they are ready to offer humanitarian aid while other sources would include profits made by the ECB and the Greek Central Bank on Greek bonds of about €1.8bn.